​Saturday, March 7, 2020, 9:00am and 12:00pm​Interest session describing howVoices 21C operates and functions as an ensemble for the ACDA Eastern Division Conference

Concert Structure

The program opens with a set dedicated to feminine identity and the struggles of the feminine spirit. This set features a Salve Regina and a new work inspired by the #MeToo movement, written by French composer Emmanuelle da Costa. We take the opportunity here to pose the question: "What happens when a woman takes power?" in the form of a song by female vocal group Artemesia.

The second set explores the struggles of forced migration, in particular, distance from loved ones and the emotional toll separation takes on the human spirit. This part of the program ends with a piece by our 2018 Call for Scores finalist Nicholas Cline, based on words journalist Elvira Arellano spoke to her son during her arrest: “They can't hurt us. God is protecting us. You just have to have faith and I will be fine and with you soon.”

The third set is inspired by issues of race, the "school to prison pipeline", lynching, and incarceration. Poet, writer, and activist, Halim A. Flowers joins us for this set, performing original poetry on these themes. We juxtapose the music of this set with both historical and modern stories and poetry to provide alternative contexts.

Spoken Word Quotes from our Program​

“I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.” Audre Lorde, “The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism,” delivered at the National Women’s Studies Association Conference, Storrs, Connecticut in June 1981

“I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood.” Audre Lorde, “The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action,” delivered at Chicago’s Modern Language Association in 1977

“We are taught to respect fear more than ourselves. We’ve been taught that silence would save us, but it won’t."Audre Lorde, from Black Women Writers at Work, Chapter 8, 1985​“Your silence will not protect you.” Audre Lorde, from "The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action" delivered at Chicago’s Modern Language Association in 1977

“On June 21, 1940, a twenty-six-year-old black man named Jesse Thornton referred to a passing police officer by his name: Doris Rhodes. When the officer, a white man, overheard Mr. Thornton and ordered him to clarify his statement, Thornton attempted to correct himself by referring to the officer as “Mr. Doris Rhodes.” Unsatisfied, the officer hurled a racial slur at Mr. Thornton while knocking him to the ground, then arrested him and took him into the city jail as a mob of white men formed just outside.

Mr. Thornton tried to escape and managed to flee a short distance while the mob quickly pursued, firing gunshots and pelting him with bricks, bats, and stones. When Mr. Thornton was wounded in the gunfire and eventually collapsed, the mob dumped him into a truck and drove to an isolated street where they dragged him into a nearby swamp and shot him again. A local fisherman found Mr. Thornton’s decomposing, vulture-ravaged body a week later in the Patsaliga River, near Tuskegee Institute.”Equal Justice Initiative, A History of Racial Injustice, On this day Jun 21, 1940 - https://calendar.eji.org/racial-injustice/jun/21

“Why do we want to kill all the broken people on this planet? What is it about it that when we see brokenness we get angry, we want to hurt it, we want to crush it.” Bryan Stevenson, excerpt from a speech delivered at Skoll World Forum given in April 2018 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0A4f0r62XU

“No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck.”Frederick Douglass, from a speech at the Civil Rights Mass Meeting (1883)

Creating We Who Believe in Freedom Cannot RestOur programming serves as a response to current events and draws inspiration from leaders and rebels who fought against injustices of 25, 50, and 100 or more years ago; the same injustices that we see in the world today. We challenged ourselves as an artistic planning committee to draw upon sources that are representative of the voices we are highlighting.

In our programming, we prioritize female-identifying composers and people of color. We are also committed to presenting contemporary works through commissioning pieces from within our ensemble alongside our annual call for scores contest.

In addition to our diversity of sources, we feel strongly that representing others’ voices means truly including those voices, which is why we actively bring in collaborators, like Halim Flowers, to be a part of our projects.​Common Ground Voices and their sister organization Common Ground Voices La Frontera (working across the Mexican border) serve as an inspiration to us, and several of our members take part in both of these projects. Dos Cuerpos, and its staging, is an example of a work that has come from these collaborations.

About Our Process...Our process typically starts with our intended audience. Who will be the recipient of our stories and what do we want them to walk away with? We have not yet presented a concert without seriously considering these questions as a central part of our programming. Once we have identified our audiences and our focus, we begin.

A small team takes on identifying a larger vision for the program and begins to build out repertoire ideas. This small team (including André) has a series of conversations in regard to each piece and its specific focus. What intent does each piece have and what story does it want to tell? How can it respond to the pieces around it? What does it offer our singers? At each of these stages, we present our progress to the ensemble for their feedback.

Once we are able to answer these questions, we start forming a tentative order for the full program. We then interrogate our programming as a full ensemble. We ask each singer to consider each piece as an individual work and its artistic integrity, what narratives we are discussing, we ask if any voices are missing that should be represented, how the translations flow from work to work, and if they feel that we achieved a certain message. The answers to these questions are varied and complex and these questions take a lot of time to discuss and process.

As a result, we play around with the order and have a lot of conversations in rehearsal. It is in these rehearsals where we prioritize time for discussion and allow flexibility in our planning that we often develop a deeper, more cohesive, and meaningful performance. Our staging ideas are also developed from this time spent in conversation and interrogation of the works.

An important note about this process relates to our ensemble culture. There is a dynamic that has been cultivated within the ensemble of acceptance to questioning. We firmly believe that if we are going to create the strongest possible program, that we need to be highly critical of it and that going through this process all together, will make the program and our understanding of how to deliver it, much stronger.

At the end, through all of our self-criticism and interrogation, we make sure that our final product leads us to one of our principles, “there is no wrong answer.” Within our context of intense reflection and planning, when we get to the stage after having developed and built our program, the goal is to communicate the best version of our story, which includes following our impulses in the moment. As we walk on stage, we remind ourselves at the end to be human, be proximate, and engage.

We firmly believe that the power of our voice(s) lies in the stories that we tell.

We would love to share more of our experience, process, and work with you or your ensemble. If you want to know more about VOICES 21C - reach out, follow us anywhere, join our Patreon, or talk to a singer. We are always more than happy to engage with you.